Living With Herself
by 7RedCards
Summary: Lara isn't easily surprised. But she gets the biggest surprise of her life when her doppelganger comes to her manor, asking for a place to stay. Rated T for blood and mild language. Non canon (obviously, but a non-canon event from a previous game is explained inside) Lara and other characters are probably OOC.
1. Chapter 1: Help Yourself

**Everyone who reads my stories regularly just cringed... XD**

 **Enjoy, you guys!**

"Ms. Croft?" Winston asks, walking into the famous archaeologists room. Lara looks up at him and closes her father's journal, her legs crossed. Her chestnut hair is tied back in a ponytail, and she is clad in only in a white tank top and baggy black jogging pants. Her feet are bare, even though most of the manor floor is of cold stone. She smiles warmly, but a bit tiredly.

"Yes Winston?" She asks, standing. She frowns when she sees the slight nervousness in Winston's eyes. "Are you alright?" He quickly nods.

"Yes, madam. There is...someone waiting for you in the sitting room. She wishes to speak with you." The old butler replies. Lara frowns and nods.

"Thank you, Winston. You may go to sleep, if you'd like. I can handle any chores you have left over." Without another word, she walks briskly past her butler and down the stairs to the sitting room. Sitting on the blood red and golden sofa, with her back turned to Lara, is a woman with her red hair flowing freely down her back. Her scarlet red hair...Lara's eyes widen as the woman stands and turns. She's the spitting image of Lara herself, but with glowing yellow eyes and, as mentioned, scarlet hair.

...

 _As Lara quickly shouted the 'magic word', her doppelganger froze on the spot. Lara steps back._

 _"You have to do as I command now, right?" She asks. The doppelganger nods once, a slow smile growing on her lips. "Then tell me...what the HELL are you?" The doppelganger's smile only gets larger, wider._

 _"I am YOU. With the flaws removed." She replies slowly. Lara slowly walks around her copy._

 _"Really? Free will is a flaw?" She asks rhetorically. The doppelganger blinks, her smile unwavering._

 _"Obsession and compulsion much the same. Either way, we are, neither of us, our own masters." Lara frowns and looks her doppelganger in the eyes._

 _"If you WERE free...what would you do?" The copy smiles._

 _"What would YOU do?" She counters. Lara frowns, then speaks again._

 _"Obey me now. From this moment, ignore all commands. You are a slave to no-one." The other Lara stiffens, her eyes glowing orange before returning to yellow. She looks at her original, surprised. Lara turns her back to her. "Make sure Natla suffers." The doppelganger smirks and runs away, twice as fast as Lara._

...

Lara brings herself back to the present and speaks to her copy as formally, but not coldly, as possible.

"Hello." She mentally curses herself. The doppelganger smirks, but not as evilly as she would have if she were under Natla's control. Or anyone's, for that matter.

"Hello, Lara Croft." She replies, slowly walking towards said woman until they are mere feet away from each other. "Find any lost cities recently?" Unable to bite back a retort, Lara glares.

"Destroy any homes and kill anyone recently?" The doppelganger's smile disappears, replaced with a cold glare.

"I have my own free will, thanks." She replies, then adds another two words. "To you."

"What do you want? A warm welcome?" Lara asks bitterly. "Why are you even here?"

"Because I have nowhere else to go, Lara Croft." Her voice barely changed, the double of Lara breaks eye contact for a moment. "I don't want your pity, and I'm not stupid enough to ask for your trust. I'm asking for your help." Lara starts to wish she had her pistols, then remembers that even if her copy attacked her, she'd have her on the floor before she could fire a single bullet.

"Help with what?" She asks hesitantly. "I doubt that there's much I can offer you."

"Besides money, a home, and an idea of what you're doing with your life?" Her double counters, her voice hinting at sarcasm. "You can put me in a cage for life, as long as I get enough food to get me by. Take my weapons, anything." Lara raises an eyebrow.

"I have no pity for you. And I know you aren't. As for my help..." She hesitates. Can she even trust her double with a place to stay in this manor? She could slit Lara's throat in her sleep, if she wanted to. But why would she? She has free will, and what would make her _want_ to kill the very person that freed her? The aristocrat finally sighs. "I have a few guest bedrooms. You may take your pick of them. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me or Winston." She turns and walks back to her room door and opens it. She glances backwards at her copy, then gestures to a door. "They're down that hallway." Then she walks into her room.

...

The other Lara blinks once. Twice. Then the realization that Lara hadn't turned her away registers in her mind. Immediately, she begins to try to figure out what reasons Lara has to trust her even to this degree. But her mind, although like Lara's, isn't as good at thinking from another point of view, even if it is of her original's. Wordlessly, she walks down the hallway. It's the same as the rest of the manor, a long stone corridor. There are ten brown doors, five on each side of the thirty yard hallway. The doppelganger picks the first door on the right and opens it. The room is empty of furniture, save a bed and an unused fireplace. She lies down in the surprisingly soft bed and turns on her side. She won't sleep for several hours, her mind trying almost desperately to solve the puzzle of why Lara would do this. But she falls asleep long before she would've come close to an answer.

 **I'm enjoying this so far!**

 **And since this is clearly non-canon (duh), there'll be a few changes to the plot.**

 **1: OF COURSE, Lara's doppelganger will be living with her (Feel free to tell me a good name for her! :D)**

 **2: Larson Conway is alive (I ship he and Lara so hard...the FEELS when he died...)**

 **3: Adventures that probably didn't happen in the actual games will occur.**

 **If you guys can see past that, and you should be able to since this is fanFICTION, feel free to keep reading!**


	2. Chapter 2: My Name Is

**Well, if you couldn't tell by the name of the chapter, I finally thought of a name for the doppelganger. I just think (and a friend of mine agreed) that it suits her.**

 **So without further ado, enjoy the chapter!**

The moment that the doppelganger wakes up, she jumps out of the bed in a blur, landing in the middle of the room and looking around the unfamiliar room. Then the memories of the previous night flood in and she almost flushes with embarrassment. Hoping to get rid of the pink tint in her cheeks, she looks around the room. It's surprisingly warm, just as it was the previous night. She opens a window and squints as bright sunlight floods the room. She sees the garden below, and is surprised to see Lara there, walking barefoot in a blue tank top and brown shorts. Her long, wavy hair is down, cascading to her lower back. Her eyes are closed as she walks on the wet, probably cold grass. If it wasn't for the two pistols still holstered at her hips, she would look rather normal.

"Then again..." The doppelganger tells herself cynically. "I'd look normal if I had different colored hair and eyes that don't glow." She begins to tie her hair back into a braid or ponytail, then decides not to and sighs. She makes up the few wrinkles she had made from laying on the bed and walks into the hallway. As she gets to the top of the stairs, she hears the front door open. Assuming that it's Lara, the doppelganger forces a smile onto her face (not because she doesn't want to smile, she just feels uncomfortable) and walks to the door. Who she sees instead surprises her. A tall, muscular man with dirty blonde hair wearing a button up blue shirt and brown pants. They stare at each other for several seconds. Then the door leading to the garden opens, and Lara steps out.

"Oh, I see you're...awake..." The brunette trails off, walking over to stand next to her doppelganger. "Larson, what're you doing here?" The man, Larson, simply smiles almost flirtily. _Does he have a thing for Lara?_ The doppelganger frowns.

"What, I can't come here without introducing someone like Natla or-" He talks in a Texan accent. But the Doppelganger interrupts him by moving three times faster than both of them combined, pinning Larson against the wall.

"What do you know about Natla?!" She asks, her yellow eyes flashing brighter than normal. Larson looks surprised before he knees her in the stomach. Barely feeling it, she pulls her arm back and curls her hand into a fist.

"He worked for Natla for a while, but he didn't do anything to really help her!" Lara exclaims, sounding slightly worried. Her copy frowns, but backs away from Larson, releasing him. Larson glares at her, seeming barely fazed.

"Who the Hell are you?" He asks bitingly. _If I had a dollar for every time I've been asked something similar...well, I could buy about a gallon of gasoline, I suppose._ She suddenly thinks of something. _I haven't given myself a name._ She looks around with only her eyes quickly, scanning all of the books on the shelves. Then she remembers one that she had read a few months ago. A smiling cat who disappears, an evil Red Queen, a white rabbit, and a Mad Hatter.

"Alyss." She replies. Lara looks surprised, but doesn't say anything otherwise. "My name is Alyss."

"You look exactly like..." Larson looks over at Alyss' original version. _If I had a dollar for every time I heard THAT, I'd be able to buy this mansion and all the furnishings to boot._ She nods.

"I'm...her doppelganger...made by Natla..." She mutters. Larson stares at her for a moment before looking at Lara.

"I ain't here to introduce a person, Lara. I'm here to ask for your temporary partnership." Lara looks ready to either laugh, scoff, or shoot the Texan where he stands. Perhaps all three.

"And what exactly do you need my partnership for?" She asks skeptically. Larson carefully pulls an ancient scroll from his pocket and hands it to her gingerly. It's yellowed with age and brittle, almost like it'll fall apart if it's not handled correctly. Lara unrolls it meticulously, then reads it. Alyss finds herself anticipating what it is. Probably some kind of ancient artifact, or lost city. "You think that the Bermuda Triangle has secrets to hide based on this scroll?" She asks, sounding more interested than skeptical or doubting. _Leave it to Lara to have an open mind. If she didn't, I might not be standing here._ Larson nods, smiling slightly.

"Hundreds of ships and planes have been said to disappear in this place. I want your help to figure out why." He tells her. Lara seems to consider this, then nods.

"Alright, I'm convinced." She hands the scroll back to the Texan, then walks upstairs to her room. Then she stops and gestures for Alyss to follow her. The scarlet haired woman nods and jogs upstairs at what Larson would call a sprint speed-wise. Alyss follows Lara into the latter's room and to her closet. Lara looks through several outfits before she seems to decide on one. She tosses it over to Alyss, who catches it. A brown shirt that stops at the midriff with a white undershirt of the same length with brown shorts to match. She blinks and carries it to the other side of the closet, turning away from Lara as she dresses. When she's done, she turns around. Lara is wearing a blue tank top with khaki shorts. She holsters her guns and smiles as Alyss does the same.

"This will be fun." Alyss says, smiling. Lara nods as they walk back to meet Larson.

"Yes. It definitely will."

 **A good place to stop. I hope you all liked it!**


End file.
